HWPL Readers - This Is Not About Us by Allegra Goodman

 

Book Discussion 

Tuesday, November 17, 2026 at 2:00 PM 

When their beloved sister passes away, Sylvia and Helen Rubinstein are unmoored. 

A misunderstanding about apple cake turns into a decade of stubborn silence. Busy with their own lives—divorces, dating, career setbacks, college applications, bat mitzvahs and ballet recitals—their children do not want to get involved. As for their grandchildren? Impossible.

This Is Not About Us is a story of growing up and growing old, the weight of parental expectations, and the complex connection between sisters—a big-hearted book about the love that binds a family across generations.

Summer by Edith Wharton

 

Book Discussion 

Tuesday, July 28, 2026 at 2:00 PM 

A native girl from a humble background meets an ambitious city boy, and a torrid romance ensues. 

Despite her pride, independence, and honesty, Charity Royall feels shadowed by her past--especially in her ardent relationship with the educated and refined Lucius Harney. Can passion overcome the effects of heredity and environment?

With its frank treatment of a woman's sexual awakening, Summer created a sensation upon its 1917 publication. Edith Wharton — the author of Ethan Frome and a peerless observer and chronicler of society — completely shattered the standards of conventional love stories with this novel's candor and realism. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author declared Summer a personal favorite among her works, and liked to refer to it as "the Hot Ethan." Over a century later, it remains fresh and relevant. (goodreads.com)

A MARRIAGE AT SEA: A TRUE STORY OF LOVE, OBSESSION, AND SHIPWRECK, BY SOPHIE ELMHIRST

Book Discussion 

Wednesday 

April 15, 2026 at 2:00 PM 

The electrifying true story of a young couple shipwrecked, in a mind-blowing tale of obsession, survival, and partnership stretched to its limits.

Maurice and Maralyn make an odd couple. He’s a loner, awkward and obsessive; she’s charismatic and ambitious. But they share a horror of wasting their lives. And they dream – as we all dream – of running away from it all. What if they quit their jobs, sold their house, bought a boat, and sailed away? Most of us begin and end with the daydream. But Maurice began to study nautical navigation. Maralyn made detailed lists of provisions. And in June 1972, they set sail. For nearly a year all went well, until deep in the Pacific, a breaching whale knocked a hole in their boat and it sank beneath the waves.

What ensues is a jaw-dropping fight to survive in the wild ocean, with little hope of rescue. Alone together for months in a tiny rubber raft, starving and exhausted, Maurice and Maralyn have to find not only ways to stay alive but ways to get along, as their inner demons emerge and their marriage is put to the greatest of tests. Although they could run away from the world, they can’t run away from themselves. (goodreads.com)

WASHINGTON BLACK, BY ESI EDUGYAN

BOOK DISCUSSION 

 

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2026, AT 2:00 PM

In-Person 

Washington Black is an eleven-year-old field slave who knows no other life than the Barbados sugar plantation where he was born.

When his master's eccentric brother chooses him to be his manservant, Wash is terrified of the cruelties he is certain await him. [But to his surprise,] Christopher Wilde, or "Titch," is a naturalist, explorer, scientist, inventor, and abolitionist. (goodreads)
"A gripping historical narrative exploring both the bounds of slavery and what it means to be truly free." (Vanity Fair)